The semi-finals took place on 25 and 27 May 2010 while the final was scheduled for 29 May 2010.[1][4] The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced that the voting system used in the semi-finals would change from previous years to balance jury voting with televoting. A return of accompaniment by orchestra was also proposed, but did not happen.

NRK announced the theme art, slogan and design for the Contest on 4 December 2009, during the Host City Insignia Exchange between the Mayors of Moscow, Oslo and Bærum, marking the official kick-off of the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 season.[18] The theme art, a series of intersecting circles, was selected to "represent gathering people and the diversity of emotions surrounding the Eurovision Song Contest."[19] In addition to the base colour of white, the logo was created in black, gold, and pink.[20] A preview of the stage design was released on 6 May 2010, featuring no LED screens, opting instead for various other lighting techniques.[21]

Unlike the 2009 and the 2008 postcards, the 2010 postcards were based in simplicity but also included an innovative idea, they are shown like they could be seen right in the venue, over the crowd's heads.

The basic synopsis of the postcards is a numerous group of little golden balls (the theme of the ESC 2010) forms the shape of each country. Then, they move and form a screen where we can see a pre-recorded video of a little crowd from in a city of the country (usually the capital) about to perform supporting and cheering their act. After that, a few seconds of the performer of the country getting ready in the stage are shown; and then, the balls form the flag of the country supported.

In the part of the shape of the country, there were little discrepancies: some countries' shapes, such as those for Serbia, Israel, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, were not completely shown, due to territorial or border disputes in those areas.

On 11 October 2009 the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced that the format of the semi-finals was to be changed so that the results would be determined by a combination of 50% national jury and 50% televoting, making it more consistent with the final. Each country's votes were determined by combining the jury votes and the televoting results; the countries with the top ten highest points in each semi-final then qualify to participate in the final of the contest.[24] This replaces the semi-final format used in the 2008 and 2009 contests in which the countries with the top nine highest points from the televoting results in each semi-final qualified for the final. The tenth semi-final place was then given to the country with the highest number of points from the jury's votes which had not already qualified for the final from the televoting results.[25] On 26 October 2009 the EBU announced that the voting would be open throughout the competition and would conclude 15 minutes after the end of the very last song.[26]

A number of fans began a campaign on social networking site Facebook for the return of an orchestra to the contest in Oslo, for the first time since 1998, with more than 5,000 people joining [27] An orchestra, which had been used since the first contest in 1956, was dropped after the 1998 contest due to rapid developments in music technology, which made backing tracks more useful.[28][29] Jan Fredrik Heyerdahl of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra said that they were interested in participating in the 2010 Contest if the EBU and NRK approved the return of an orchestra.[28][29] However, no such change to the contest had been approved.

The interval act involved a number of live public outdoor dance events from across Europe, which were planned for promotional purposes, but done in the style of a series of spontaneous flashmobs. The outdoor footage was intercut with webcam footage from individual private households. Peter Svaar, Head of Press for the contest on behalf of broadcaster NRK, said: "We want to share the Eurovision Song Contest, rather than just broadcast it."[30] The seven and a half minute long song, called "Glow", was produced and co-written by the Element team and performed and co-written by Madcon.[31]

On Sunday 7 February 2010, the draw to decide which countries were to appear in either the first or second semi-final took place. The participating countries excluding the automatic finalists (France, Germany, Norway, Spain & the United Kingdom) were split into six pots, based upon how those countries had been voting. From these pots, half (or as close to half as is possible) competed in the first Semi Final on 25 May 2010. The other half in that particular pot will compete in the second Semi Final on 27 May 2010. This draw also doubled up as an approximate running order, in order for the delegations from the countries to know when their rehearsals commenced. The draw also determined in which Semi Final the automatic finalists voted in.[32][33] The draw for the running order of the semi-finals, finals, and the order of voting, took place on 23 March 2010.[3]

A total of 39 countries confirmed their participation for the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest, including Georgia, which returned to the contest after its withdrawal in 2009 when its entry, "We Don't Wanna Put In" (by Stephane & 3G), was disallowed owing to political references to the newly elected Russian President Vladimir Putin, which violated contest rules.[5]

The EBU announced that they would work harder to bring back Austria, Italy, and Monaco to the 2010 Contest.[34] In September 2009 the EBU's director Bjørn Erichsen stated during an EBU press conference that "Austria will be back", and that the EBU "has reasons to believe that Luxembourg and Monaco" were also to participate and that "now we are only missing Italy".[35][36][37] In late October 2009, the 2010 Contest project manager Jon Ola Sand has stated that "countries such as Monaco and Luxembourg have indicated that they wish to participate in next year's competition in Norway".[35][38]
However, the representatives of broadcasters of Austria, Monaco and Luxembourg denied participation in the 2010 contest. Wolfgang Lorenz, the programme director of the Austrian broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), informed Austria would not take part in the competition stating that the contest has been "ruined by the regulations".[39]Télé Monte Carlo (TMC) has also declared that Monaco would not be returning to the Eurovision Song Contest for the 2010 Edition, mainly due to a lack of finances to send a Monegasque entry.[40] The RTL Group had announced that they were having serious discussions regarding a possible comeback for Luxembourg in the contest for the first time since 1993, but later confirmed that the country would not be present for the 2010 Contest either.[41]San Marino also considered returning to the competition in 2010. However, after deliberations with Italian artists, including Italian sister duo Paola & Chiara, Sammarinnese broadcaster Radiotelevisione della Repubblica di San Marino (SMRTV) was informed to withhold returning after failing to receive funding from the Sammarinnese parliament or sponsors.[42]

EBU had talks to Liechtenstein's only broadcaster 1FLTV (1 Fürstentum Liechtenstein Television) for them to join the EBU, and become a part of the Eurovision Song Contest. 1FLTV's programme director Peter Kolbel had confirmed interest in Liechtenstein's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest as soon as full EBU membership is granted, which may have happened in December 2009. Thus they were getting ready to debut in 2010, considering a national final concept similar to the German version of the Idol series – Deutschland sucht den Superstar (DSDS).[35][43] In November 1FLTV decided against applying for EBU membership in December for financial reasons, ruling out a debut in at the 2010 contest. The broadcaster will now look at other options for funding EBU membership in the future.[44][45]

From July to December 2009, five countries who participated in the 2009 contest announced their withdrawal, and non-participation in the 2010 contest. The Czech Republic declared that it was to withdraw due to a lack of interest from Czech viewers after three successive semi-final failures since their debut in 2007.[7][8]

Andorra's broadcaster Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra (RTVA) announced a 10% reduction in its spending budget for 2010.[46] RTVA had submitted a preliminary application to take part in the contest.[47] However, being unable to secure extra funds by 11 December 2009, it decided to withdraw from the 2010 Contest.[6] After its withdrawal many former Andorran Eurovision Song Contest contestants expressed their "disappointment" in RTVA's decision to withdraw, and the lack of publicity the country will now receive by not being contestants in the contest.[48]Hungary withdrew from the 2010 Contest, due to financial difficulties of the national broadcaster Magyar Televízió (MTV).[9]Montenegro and the Montenegrin broadcaster Radiotelevizija Crne Gore (RTCG) also withdrew because of financial problems, in a way to reach financial consolidation after three years as an independent state.[10][11]

Lithuania's broadcaster Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT) initially announced its formal withdrawal from the contest after failing to achieve the necessary funds of 300,000 litas (€90,000) for participation.[12] It was later confirmed by the EBU that Lithuania would indeed participate in Oslo.[3] Funding was eventually given by Lithuanian company Teo LT, which allowed Lithuania to participate in the contest.[49]

Thirty-four countries participated in the semi-finals of the contest. The semi-final allocation draw took place on 7 February 2010, while the draw for the running order was held on 23 March 2010.

To keep tension high, the qualifiers were announced in random order, and scores were published online only after the final took place.[50]

The ten countries in this semi-final with the highest scoring points, according to a combination of televotes and jury votes from each voting country, qualified for the final. The Wildcard option from the previous contest has been dropped.

The final took place on 29 May 2010 at 21:00 CEST in Telenor Arena, Bærum, Akershus, Greater Oslo, Norway.

'The Big Four' and the host country, Norway, qualified directly for the final.

From the two semi-finals on 25 and 27 May 2010, twenty countries qualified for the final. A total of twenty-five countries competed in the final.

The voting system used was similar to that used in the 2009 contest (with a combination of televotes and jury votes), but viewers were able to vote during the performances; the voting window ended 15 minutes after the conclusion of the songs.

Organisation Générale des Amateurs de l'Eurovision (more commonly known as OGAE) is an international organisation that was founded in 1984 in Savonlinna, Finland by Jari-Pekka Koikkalainen.[70] The organisation consists of a network of 40 Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs across Europe and beyond, and is a non-governmental, non-political, and non-profitable company.[71] In what has become an annual tradition for the OGAE fan clubs, a voting poll was opened allowing members from different clubs around the world to vote for their favourite songs of the 2010 contest. Below is the top five overall results, after all the votes had been cast.[72]

The Barbara Dex Award has been annually awarded by the fan website House of Eurovision since 1997, and is a humorous award given to the worst dressed artist each year in the contest. It is named after the Belgian artist, Barbara Dex, who came last in the 1993 contest, in which she wore her own self designed (awful) dress.

Even though Australia is not eligible to enter, the contest was broadcast on Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), a free-to-air television station, as in previous years.[101] As in 2009, the coverage featured local commentary and segments from Julia Zemiro and Sam Pang.[86]

The first semi-final was broadcast on 28 May 2010, the second semi-final on 29 May 2010, and the final on 30 May 2010, with all shows broadcast at 19:30 AEST (09:30 UTC). The first semi final rated a respectable 316,000 viewers, the second semi-final rated 415,000 viewers and the final rated 366,000, a solid result considering Sunday night offers tough competition on the commercial networks.[102][103]

The final was also simulcast on a special Digital Radio Channel, set-up by the network, which is aired classic Eurovision songs, in the lead-up to the event. SBS also aired the EBU-Produced 'Countdown To Eurovision' specials on 14 May and 21 May at 4 pm.[104]

For the 2010 contest, SBS broadcast a special TV programme "The A to Z of Eurovision" one week before Eurovision. This programme was a 20 to 1 style show that plays the craziest, campest and most controversial moments of Eurovision with great guests and performers. It also featured as a form guide to find out who was hot that year, and what to look out for the following weekend. The A to Z of Eurovision featured Eurovision performers including Johnny Logan and Dima Bilan as well as Australian celebrities. The show was hosted by Julia Zemiro and Sam Pang.[105]

Although New Zealand is not eligible to enter the contest, the contest was broadcast on Triangle TV's satellite channel STRATOS. It broadcast both the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 semi finals as well as the final as a delayed broadcast.[101]

It was announced at the Reference Group meeting on 22 March 2010 that Hungary would be broadcasting the contest.[106]Duna TV, currently an approved member of the EBU, has been confirmed as broadcasting the contest in Hungary after Magyar Televízió, the current Hungarian broadcaster, pulled out. They have also announced that they will attempt to send a Hungarian entry to the 2011 contest.[107]

Despite not participating in 2010's Eurovision Song Contest due to financial trouble, the national broadcaster of Montenegro, RTCG, aired both semi finals and the final live on its main channel RTCG2.[108]

Worldwide

The official Eurovision Song Contest website provided a live stream without commentary via the peer-to-peer medium Octoshape.[109]

Eurovision Song Contest: Oslo 2010 was the official compilation album of the 2010 Contest, put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by EMI Records and CMC International on 17 May 2010.The album featured all 39 songs that entered in the 2010 contest, including the semi-finalists that failed to qualify into the grand final.[119]

1.
Telenor Arena
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Telenor Arena, sometimes referred to as Fornebu Arena, is a multi-purpose indoor arena located at Fornebu in Bærum, outside Oslo, Norway. It serves as a venue for a variety of events, including concerts, exhibitions, action shows, family shows, TV and sport. It has a capacity for 15,000 spectators for sports and 23,000 for concerts, including 40 luxury boxes, the venue has a fixed roof and an asphalt floor. The venue was opened ahead of the 2009 Norwegian football season as a replacement for Nadderud Stadion and it cost 585 million Norwegian kroner to build, of which NOK300 million was for the sports venue. During the 2000s, Nadderud was below standards for play in the top national league, Fornebu was at the time undergoing an urban redevelopment, after several years of negotiations and public grants, Stabæk secured a lot in 2004. In 2010, a disagreement arose between the club and venue-owner Kjell Chr, Ulrichsen, with the latter demanding that the team leave the venue to allow for more event revenue. Stabæk traditionally has played their games at Nadderud Stadion, a municipal multi-purpose stadium at Bekkestua. Following the clubs rapid ascent from lower divisions to the top league during the first half of the 1990s, Nadderud became in need of upgrades, the stadium remained severely lacking adequate facilities for professional football, and fell short of increasing requirements from the Football Association of Norway. The initial proposal was named Blue Dream Arena, would have seating for 25,000 spectators, blue artificial turf, other proposed amenities were movable seating which would also allow the stadium to both host athletics and be configured as an intimate football stadium. The idea called for Bruce Springsteen to hold a concert before the first match, several of the initial concepts of the stadium were never materialized. International rules disallowed blue artificial turf, instead, the flooring in the boxes were made in a blue, also the idea of having a retractable roof was discarded, both because of technical difficulties and cost issues. In May 2001, Oslo City Council voted to sell their properties at Fornebu to Fornebu Boligspar, in November 2002, Borgarting Court of Appeal concluded that Norrønafly had the right to continue leasing a hangar—located at the planned location of the venue—until 2014. In June 2003, Stabæk was in difficulties, and investor Kjell Chr. Ulrichsen bought shares for NOK10 million to avoid bankruptcy, these shares had the option to be converted to shares in the arena company, Fornebu Boligspar later determined that it was more profitable to build apartments at the arena site. Negotiations started between the club, the property company and Mayor Odd Reinsfelt, in November 2003, it was announced that a compromise was reached whereby Fornebu Boligspar would give the lot free to Stabæk, in exchange for a lot nearby. Two weeks later the compromise was rejected by FB, a new compromise was announced on 29 June 2004, whereby FB would give 50 million Norwegian krone and a lot free to Stabæk in exchange for the commercial properties which would be part of the stadium. However, the day the parties announced that they were not able to agree on the risk. Instead, Stabæk started negotiating with IT Fornebu to take over a lot they owned, the club was further pressured by NFF, who were going to limit the exceptions allowed for Nadderud and other stadiums not meeting their criteria

2.
Oslo
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Oslo is the capital and the most populous city in Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality, founded in the year 1040, and established as a kaupstad or trading place in 1048 by Harald Hardrada, the city was elevated to a bishopric in 1070 and a capital under Haakon V of Norway around 1300. Personal unions with Denmark from 1397 to 1523 and again from 1536 to 1814, after being destroyed by a fire in 1624, the city was moved closer to Akershus Fortress during the reign of Christian IV of Denmark and renamed Christiania in his honour. It was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838, following a spelling reform, it was known as Kristiania from 1877 to 1925, at which time its original Norwegian name was restored. Oslo is the economic and governmental centre of Norway, the city is also a hub of Norwegian trade, banking, industry and shipping. It is an important centre for industries and maritime trade in Europe. The city is home to companies within the maritime sector, some of which are among the worlds largest shipping companies, shipbrokers. Oslo is a city of the Council of Europe and the European Commission intercultural cities programme. Oslo is considered a city and ranked Beta World City in studies carried out by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group. It was ranked one in terms of quality of life among European large cities in the European Cities of the Future 2012 report by fDi magazine. A survey conducted by ECA International in 2011 placed Oslo as the second most expensive city in the world for living expenses after Tokyo. In 2013 Oslo tied with the Australian city of Melbourne as the fourth most expensive city in the world, as of January 1,2016, the municipality of Oslo has a population of 658,390, while the population of the citys urban area was 942,084. The metropolitan area had an population of 1.71 million. The population was during the early 2000 increasing at record rates and this growth stems for the most part from international immigration and related high birth rates, but also from intra-national migration. The immigrant population in the city is growing faster than the Norwegian population. As of January 1,2016, the municipality of Oslo has a population of 658,390, the urban area extends beyond the boundaries of the municipality into the surrounding county of Akershus, the total population of this agglomeration is 942,084. To the north and east, wide forested hills rise above the city giving the location the shape of a giant amphitheatre. The urban municipality of Oslo and county of Oslo are two parts of the entity, making Oslo the only city in Norway where two administrative levels are integrated

3.
Norway
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The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him

4.
Erik Solbakken
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Erik Solbakken is a Norwegian television presenter. Solbakken hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 together with Haddy Jatou Njie and he has hosted multiple childrens shows including Barne-tv, Julemorgen, Krem Nasjonal, and Superkviss, as well as Barnetimen for de minste on NRK P2. Erik Solbakken hosted the prestigious Idrettsgallaen with Haddy NJie 2010 from Hamar, in 2010 he is Ready for one more golden moment - Popstokk, the Norwegian version of BattlePop, airing spring prime time Friday nights at NRK. In 2011, he hosted the Eurovision Young Dancers competition 2011

5.
Haddy N'jie
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Haddy Jatou Njie is a Norwegian singer, songwriter, writer and journalist. Her father is Gambian and her mother is Norwegian and she grew up in Kolbotn near Oslo and is the eldest of five siblings. Njie has worked as a reporter for Dagsrevyen and is a columnist for Dagbladet and she hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 with Erik Solbakken and Nadia Hasnaoui. She hosted the telethon on Norways largest TV channel NRK1 in 2009,2010,2011 and 2013. When Norway held a ceremony of remembrance on 21 August for the 77 victims of the worst attacks on the country since World War Two. She also hosted the one year memorial concert on 22 July 2012, in 2011 she hosted the prestigious sports award show Idrettsgallaen from Hamar Olympic Amphitheatre together with Erik Solbakken and in 2012 and 2013 with Anne Rimmen. The show was broadcast on NRK, much of the groups material lampoons either Norwegians or Africans. The couple ended their relationship in 2012, in 2014, Njie confirmed that she and Labour Party politician Trond Giske were in a relationship. In September 2015, Njie announced that she was pregnant and she and Giske are expecting a child by spring 2016

6.
Jon Ola Sand
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Jon Ola Sand is a Norwegian television executive, who is the European Broadcasting Unions Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest. He is the son of writer and actor Bjørn Sand. He grew up at Vinderen in Oslo, and has a brother and his brother, Simen, is an actor and author. As of May 2010, Sand was in a relationship with the Swedish choreographer Mattias Carlsson. In October 2010, Sand was a passenger on a train derailed at Skotterud in Hedmark, Norway. Sand appeared in a role in the 1980 film At dere tør. having graduated the same year from the music branch of his local upper secondary school. As a teenager he played the drums in a rock band, which eventually led him being hired by NRK. He started his career in NRK in 1981, and advanced via programme secretary to producer and project leader. He had a stint in the competing channel TV2 from 1992 to 1996, Sand is a member of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Television shows produced or directed by Sand include the Nobel Peace Prize Concert, in the years 1998 to 2005 he led the Norwegian delegation to the Eurovision Song Contest. In 2010, Sand was appointed as the Executive Producer of the 55th Eurovision Song Contest 2010, held in Oslo, Norway. Sand is a producer for the Norwegian television channel NRK, which was responsible for holding the festival in 2010. Sand reportedly edged out 39 other applicants, as Executive Supervisor, Sand has the last call with regards to the production of the Eurovision song contest, with the ability to overrule the producers, and instruct. He is also responsible for the organization of the system of the contest. He made his debut as Executive Supervisor at the Eurovision in Düsseldorf in 2011, Sand was later appointed as the Executive Supervisor for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2016. He has been on leave from NRK since being appointed Executive Supervisor, in an interview with the news agency Reuters in 2011, Sand launched the idea of extending the Eurovision Song Contest to a Worldvision Song Contest. In May 2015, Sand stated to the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK that the Worldvision idea was not moving forward. He also cited the large cost of a song contest

7.
NRK
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NRK is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest media organisation in Norway. NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and three radio channels on DVB-T, cable, satellite, IPTV, FM and DAB. It also runs several digital radio stations, all NRK radio stations can be heard on the website, NRK. no, which also offers an extensive TV service. NRK is a member of the European Broadcasting Union. 94% of NRKs funding comes from an annual license fee payable by anyone who owns or uses a TV or device capable of receiving TV broadcasts. The remainder comes from commercial activities such as programme and DVD sales, spin-off products, NRKs license income in 2012 was more than 5 billion kroner. In the autumn of 2015 the government announced that it planned to change the way NRK is financed and this is in part a reaction to the decline of TV ownership in Norway. Some kind of charge is planned, but it is not yet clear how such a system would work. The feeling is that the current license system is not sustainable in the long term, kringkastningselskapet, a privately owned company and the predecessor of NRK, started regular radio broadcasts in Norway in 1925. NRK itself was founded in 1933, based on a model similar to that of the BBC and located in Oslo, it was a replacement for privately operated radio stations in larger cities. NRK initially set out to cover the country and had a monopoly on broadcasting in Norway. During the German occupation, Norwegian transmitters were used to broadcast German war propaganda to Northern Europe, prior to the German occupation, NRK had also been partly financed by radio commercials. NRK was one of 23 founding broadcasting organisations of the European Broadcasting Union, in 1954, NRK started broadcasting television shows, on a trial basis. NRK was the last of the major European public broadcasters to introduce a second radio station, in 1993 NRK launched a third radio station, the youth-oriented P3. A 24-hour station for classical music, Alltid Klassisk, introduced in 1995, was the first of its kind to be broadcast digitally using DAB. The 24-hour news station Alltid Nyheter started in 1997, followed by a station for teenagers, mP3, in 2000. In 1996, a television channel, NRK2, was launched. The original television channel is now known as NRK1, on 3 September 2007 NRK launched its third channel, a youth channel called NRK3

8.
Alexander Rybak
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Alexander Igoryevich Rybak is a Belarusian-born Norwegian singer-composer, violinist, pianist, actor. His debut album, Fairytales, charted in the top 20 in nine European countries, including a No.1 position in Norway, Rybak made a return to Eurovision in 2012 and 2016, playing the violin during both interval acts. Rybak was born in Minsk, Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union and he became a student at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo at the age of 10. In 2004, Rybak was awarded the Anders Jahre Culture Prize presented to him by Viktoriya Rybak at the culture festival in Madrid. In 2005, he entered the Norwegian version of Idol, Idol, Jakten på en superstjerne, in 2006, Rybak won Kjempesjansen, a talent competition hosted by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, with his own song, Foolin. Rybak has collaborated with such as a-has lead singer Morten Harket. In 2007, Rybak played the fiddler in Oslo Nye Teaters production of Fiddler on the Roof, Rybak won the 54th Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, Russia, with a record 387 points, singing Fairytale, a song inspired by Norwegian folk music. The song was composed and written by Rybak and was performed with the folk dance company Frikar. The song received good reviews with a score of 6 out of 6 in the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet, Rybak later won the Eurovision final with a landslide victory, receiving votes from all the participating countries. Rybak finished with a total of 387 points, breaking the record of 292 points scored by Lordi in 2006 and scoring 169 points more than the runner-up. Rybaks first album, Fairytales, was released after his Eurovision win, Rybak also co-stars as Levi in the film Yohan directed by Grete Salomonsen, which was released in March 2010. Rybak also went on a tour in Norway with former Norwegian Eurovision winner Elisabeth Andreassen, something that had decided before his Eurovision win. He and Frikar also toured Norway and Europe in 2009, in a December 2009 performance of his hit Fairytale at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert, held at the Oslo Spektrum, Rybak shared the stage with nine other acts. On 12 March 2010, Alexander Rybak performed his Eurovision 2009 winning song Fairytale on UK TV show Eurovision, in April 2010, Rybak released a new song, featuring Opptur, called Fela Igjen. On 8 June 2010, Rybak released the first single from his second album Oah, a music video was made for the single. It was directed by Lars Kristian Flemmen, produced by Eirik Heldal and it is filmed in a university or college. He also recorded and released a Russian version of song called Strela Amura. Alexander released his album on 14 June 2010, called No Boundaries

9.
Fairytale (Alexander Rybak song)
–
Fairytale is a song written and composed by Norwegian violinist/singer Alexander Rybak, and the first single from Rybaks debut album Fairytales. This song was the winner of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, in February 2009, Norwegian media reported that Fairytale is about Rybaks ex-girlfriend Ingrid Berg Mehus whom he got to know through the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo. The Russian-language version of the song is entitled Skazka, the final took place on 16 May and the song won with 387 points – a new ESC record. It was Norways third Eurovision Song Contest win, the backing dancers for the Eurovision performance, Sigbjørn Rua, Torkjell Lunde Børsheim and Hallgrim Hansegård, are from the Norwegian dance company Frikar, performing the folk dance halling. The backing singers, Jorunn Hauge and Karianne Kjærnes, wore long pink dresses designed by Norwegian designer Leila Hafzi. The first official video for the song, which was used to present the song before the Eurovision final, was Alexander Rybaks Performance at the Melodi Grand Prix 2009 in Norway. The most recent video was of Alexander Rybak playing the Violin and singing with his backing dancers behind him, where the background occasionally changes from white to black. A video of Rybaks performance of the song at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest final in Moscow, was chosen by YouTube as one of its 31 most memorable videos of 2009. In the Norwegian preselection, Melodi Grand Prix 2009, Rybaks Fairytale won with a combined televote and jury score of 747,888, the song received over 600,000 votes more than the runner-up, which made it the clearest win in the history of Melodi Grand Prix. At the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, Rybak won with the highest recorded score since the contest began, with 387 points and he held this record until 2016 when Jamala from Ukraine won with a record 534 points. His average score of 9.4 points from every voting nation was the highest since the use of televoting began in 1998. The song also debuted on the Norwegian Singles Chart on the week of 11 February 2009 at number 3, before rising to one on the following week. This was the first time that the Melodi Grand Prix winner reached number 1 before winning the contest, the song remained at number 1 for 8 consecutive weeks. The song has entered the Swedish Sverigetopplistan, debuting at number 47, before rising to number 7 in its third week. After the song gaining the Top Spot on Eurovision, it entered the Top Ten of many Charts across Europe, the song debuted on the UK charts at #10 on Downloads Alone and then dropped to #38 the next week, it also reached Number 3 on the Download Chart. Fairytale is the ninth non-UK Eurovision entry to reach the top ten in the UK charts since the contest began in 1956, the single went multi-platinum in different formats in Russia. It first went platinum as realtone/ full track and sold 100,000 copies, then it was certified 2x platinum as ring-back tone with another 400,000 copies sold. Combined sales of the song are 500,000 copies without online downloads, sampled in 2015 by Uzbek singer Gulasal Abdullayeva on single Notanish yigit

10.
Breakdancing
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B-boying or breaking, also called breakdancing, is a style of street dance that originated primarily among Puerto Rican and African American youths during the mid-1970s in the Bronx. The dance spread worldwide due to popularity in the media, especially in such as Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, South Korea. While diverse in the amount of variation available in the dance, b-boying consists of four kinds of movement, toprock, downrock, power moves, and freezes. B-boying is typically danced to hip-hop, funk music, and especially breakbeats, although modern trends allow for much wider varieties of music along certain ranges of tempo, a practitioner of this dance is called a b-boy, b-girl, or breaker. Although the term breakdance is frequently used to refer to the dance in culture and in the mainstream entertainment industry. These terms are preferred by the majority of the pioneers and most notable practitioners, instead of the term b-boying, the mainstream media promoted the artform as breakdancing, causing many to only know it as such. Enthusiasts consider breakdancing an ignorant and derogatory term due to the exploitation of the artform. The media displayed a simplified version of the dance, making it seem like the so-called “tricks” were everything, ultimately trading the culture for money and promotion. The dance itself is properly called breaking according to such as KRS-One, Talib Kweli, Mos Def. The terms b-boy, b-girl, and breaker are the terms used to describe the dancers who performed to DJ Kool Hercs breakbeats. DJ Kool Herc is a Jamaican-American DJ who is responsible for developing the foundational aspects of hip-hop music, the obvious connection of the term breaking is to the word breakbeat. DJ Kool Herc has commented that the term breaking was 1970s slang for getting excited, most breaking pioneers and practitioners prefer the terms b-boy, b-girl, and/or breaker when referring to these dancers. For those immersed in culture, the term breakdancer may be used to disparage those who learn the dance for personal gain rather than for commitment to the culture. B-boy London of the New York City Breakers and filmmaker Michael Holman refer to these dancers as breakers, frosty Freeze of the Rock Steady Crew says, we were known as b-boys, and hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa says, b-boys, what you call break boys. Or b-girls, what you call break girls, many elements of b-boying can be seen in other antecedent cultures prior to the 1970s. B-boy pioneers Richard Crazy Legs Colon and Kenneth Ken Swift Gabbert, many of b-boyings acrobatic moves, such as the flare, show clear connections to gymnastics. The engraving shows a man apparently B-boying. The dance was called the Giesse Harad Polska or salmon district dance, a young street dancer performing acrobatic headspins was recorded by Thomas Edison in 1898

11.
Flash mob
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Flash mobs are organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails. In these cases of a purpose for the social activity in question. The term flash rob or flash mob robberies, a reference to the way flash mobs assemble, has used to describe a number of robberies. Bill Wasik, originator of the first flash mobs, and a number of commentators have questioned or objected to the usage of flash mob to describe criminal acts. The first flash mobs were created in Manhattan in 2003, by Bill Wasik, the first attempt was unsuccessful after the targeted retail store was tipped off about the plan for people to gather. More than 130 people converged upon the ninth floor rug department of the store, the Vancouver Sun wrote, It may have backfired on him. May instead have ended up giving conformity a vehicle that allowed it to appear nonconforming, in 19th-century Tasmania, the term flash mob was used to describe a subculture consisting of female prisoners, based on the term flash language for the jargon that these women used. The 19th-century Australian term flash mob referred to a segment of society, not an event, in 1973, the story Flash Crowd by Larry Niven described a concept similar to flash mobs. With the invention of popular and very inexpensive teleportation, an argument at a shopping mall—which happens to be covered by a news crew—quickly swells into a riot. Commenting on the impact of such mobs, one character says, We call them flash crowds. In related short stories, they are named as a location for illegal activities to take place. Flash mobs began as a form of performance art, while they started as an apolitical act, flash mobs may share superficial similarities to political demonstrations. In the 1960s, groups such as the Yippies used street theatre to expose the public to political issues. Flash mobs can be seen as a form of smart mob. The first documented use of the flash mob as it is understood today was in 2003 in a blog entry posted in the aftermath of Wasiks event. The term was inspired by the term smart mob. Also recognized noun derivatives are flash mobber and flash mobbing, websters New Millennium Dictionary of English defines flash mob as a group of people who organize on the Internet and then quickly assemble in a public place, do something bizarre, and disperse. The press has used the term flash mob to refer to a practice in China where groups of shoppers arrange online to meet at a store in order to drive a collective bargain

12.
Madcon
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Madcon is a Norwegian musical duo formed in 1992 by Yosef Wolde-Mariam and Tshawe Baqwa. To date, they have released six albums, Yosef Wolde-Mariam is a Norwegian TV presenter and a rapper. Wolde-Mariam was born in Norway to parents originating from Ethiopia and Eritrea, hes a Norwegian presenter and one half of the rap duo Madcon. He grew up in Grefsen with his mother residing later variously in Røyken, Grønland Grünerløkka and Bekkelaget, in 2012, he was a mentor on the Norwegian version of The Voice known as The Voice – Norges beste stemme broadcast on the Norwegian television station TV2. Tshawe Baqwa is a Norwegian rapper and presenter of South African parents, Baqwa was born in Germany and moved to Norway when he was just 6 months old. He moved to South Africa with his parents when he was 14 years old, besides him being one half of the Norwegian duo Madcon, he took part and won the third season of the Norwegian dance competition Skal vi danse. Although Tshawe got lesser points from the judges who favoured the other finalist Mona Grudt and he also appeared as a voice over artist in Rio, a 20th Century Fox film, playing the character of Nico. Madcon released their first single, God Forgive Me in 2000, in 2004, Madcon released their first official album Its All A Madcon, for which they won a Norwegian Grammy and several other awards. In 2005, Madcon were TV personalities on the Nordic music channel The Voice, the show The Voice of Madcon, a behind-the-scenes of the duo, was a great success for both Madcon and the network. In autumn 2007, Baqwa was invited to take part in the reality television program Skal vi danse. The Norwegian version of Strictly Come Dancing eventually winning that years series and their second album, So Dark The Con Of Man, was released on 3 December 2007. In the United Kingdom, the reached number 137 on the album charts. In Norway, the album was certified gold in 3 hours, the album featured the soul singer Noora Noor and Paperboys on two of the songs. In addition, they achieved 9 x platinum in Norway, and were No.1 on the official Norwegian sales charts for 12 weeks, making Beggin one of the biggest hits of all times in Norway. Madcon’s cover of Beggin was created by 3Elementz, who produced the other singles “So Dark The Con Of Man. They led the World Music Awards on 10 November 2008 and won the Worlds Best Selling Norwegian Artist Award, Beggin reached Gold sales in the United States. After several negotiations, Madcons label signed a agreement with Sony BMG for Central Europe, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Warner Music in Spain, and Just Music in South Africa, Madcon have also hosted the Norwegian version of Dont Forget the Lyrics

13.
Glow (Madcon song)
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Glow is an English language song by the Norwegian urban duo Madcon. It is the first single released from their fourth album Contraband, the song is produced by production team Element, and written by Element and Madcon. Madcon performed the song during the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 interval in Oslo, there was also special appearance footage by HRH Crown Princess Mette-Marit, her daughter HRH Princess Ingrid Alexandra and her son Marius Borg Høiby. Digital download Glow –3,50 German CD Single Glow -3,49 Glow -7,36 The song was released as a single making it to #1 in the Norwegian VG-lista singles chart for 10 consecutive weeks. It also made it in many European singles charts, Germany, Finland, Ireland, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands, list of number-one hits in Norway in 2010 Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics

14.
Georgia in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Georgia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest nine times, debuting at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007. On 27 October 2006, Georgia, confirmed that they wished to debut at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, at the contest, Georgia managed to progress from the semi-final, but only came 12th in the final. Georgia appeared for its time in the contest for 2008. It had slightly better luck than in 2007, progressing from the semi-final, due to the 2008 South Ossetia war, it had been debated by Georgian Public Broadcaster whether Georgia would be present at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow. GPB chairman stated that it would not be unreasonable to withdraw, after winning the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2008, and getting the maximum 12 points from Russia they were encouraged to participate again in 2009. After a national final was held on 18 February 2009 the selected entry for Georgia was decided to be Stefane & 3G with their 70s-inspired song We Dont Wanna Put In. However the song gained controversy due to the lyrics of the song, which included perceived political references to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, which GPB denied. Nevertheless, the EBU banned the song from competing due to its lyrics, GPB claimed that the EBUs rejection of the song was due to political pressure exerted by Russia, and withdrew again from the contest on 11 March. Georgia returned to the Contest in 2010, after a one-year gap, Sopho sang the song Shine at the Contest, written by Hanne Sørvaag, Harry Sommerdahl and Christian Leuzzi. Georgia competed in the second semi-final of the contest on 27 May, performing in the 16th slot, Georgia came 9th in the final, with 136 points, achieving their best place so far. In 2011, Georgia sent the rock band Eldrine to the contest in Düsseldorf and they managed to equal Sopho Nizharadzes 9th place of the year before. In 2012, Georgia sent Anri Jokhadze to the contest in Baku, Azerbaijan with the song Im a Joker, on 24 May 2012, he became the first Georgian representative to fail to reach the Eurovision Song Contest final. In 2013, Georgia selected its entry internally, Sopho Gelovani & Nodiko Tatishvili was the first duo to represent Georgia in Eurovision. The song was produced by 2012s winning composer Thomas G, Son, in the second semi-final Georgia qualified in 10th, and in the final Georgia came in 15th place with 50 points. In 2014, Georgia selected jazz fusion band The Shin alongside vocalist Mariko Ebralidze to the contest in Copenhagen and their song, Three Minutes to Earth, was panned by critics and placed last in the second semi-final. This is the worst Georgian result to date, in 2015, Georgia held a national final for the first time since 2012. Nina Sublatti and her song Warrior were chosen to represent Georgia in the contest and it qualified from the first semi-final. Nina Sublatti eventually reached an 11th place in the grand final, on December 15,2015, Georgia internally selected Nika Kocharov & Young Georgian Lolitaz to represent Georgia in the 2016 contest They finished 9th in semi-final and 20th in the grand final

15.
Andorra in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Andorra has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest six times, debuting in the 2004 contest. Interest in the contest had been great for a time, despite the local Andorran broadcaster, Ràdio i Televisió dAndorra. A majority of the songs have so far been sung in Catalan, as of 2017, Andorra is the only country to have participated in the contest and never to have featured in the final. Despite the homeland interest in the competition, Andorra has never qualified for the final, in 2007, a qualification for the final was predicted, but with a 12th-place finish, it just missed out. In the past RTVA held a large reality show contest to select its entry for Eurovision, from 2006, RTVA held an internal selection process to select the Andorran entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. RTVA confirmed its participation in the 2009 contest in Moscow, Russia and it announced that there would be a public selection process - something not seen in the country since 2005. Andorras 2009 entry once again failed to qualify, getting only 8 points in the semifinal, in the finals, Andorra has always given its 12 points to Spain, with the exception of 2007. As the two nations are neighbouring, this has very little to dispel accusations of political voting which have been going on for a long time. In December 2009, RTVA announced that Andorra would withdraw from the 2010 Contest due to a lack of funding for an Andorran entry and this came after RTVA submitted an entry for the contest, in case funding could be found to submit an entry. However no funding could be found, and so Andorra was forced to withdraw, Andorra did not participate in the 2011 contest due to financial difficulties, or in the 2012 contest, for the same reason. Andorra did not participate in subsequent contests, on 8 November 2011, it was announced by the Andorran broadcaster, RTVA, that they would leave the EBU, due to financial reasons and a cut of subsidies from the Andorran government. After a meeting with the EBU director Ingrid Deltenre in June 2012, RTVA decided to stay in the EBU, ^ Andorra finished in 23rd place at the 2006 contest, even though 24 countries appear on the semi-final scoreboard published by the European Broadcasting Union. Serbia & Montenegro withdrew from the competition before the contest but still voted, as of 2009, Andorras voting history is as follows, Points to and from Andorra - eurovisioncovers. co. uk RTVAs Eurovision page EuroAndorra, the Pyrenean eurosite OGAE Andorra site

16.
Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest
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The Czech Republic has competed at the Eurovision Song Contest five times, first taking part in 2007. On their first four attempts the country failed to qualify to the final from the semi-finals, in 2016, the Czech Republic got its first qualification to the final in their Eurovision history, leaving Andorra as the only country to have never performed in the final. After receiving nul points at the 2009 Contest and a lack of interest from the Czech public, five years later ČT announced their return to the contest in 2015, with an internal selection being used to select their fourth Eurovision entry. During the time of Czechoslovakia, Československá televize is known to have broadcast a number of editions of the Contest in Czechoslovakia during the 1960s and 1970s. After the dissolution of the state in 1993 the Czech Republics partner Slovakia immediately attempted to enter the Contest, Czech broadcaster Česká televize had originally planned to send an entry to the 2005 Contest, held in Kiev, Ukraine. However, this did not materialise for various reasons, ČT again looked at sending an entry to the 2006 Contest in Athens, Greece, but failed to do so after having doubts that the country would qualify for the final. In April 2006 ČT officially confirmed their presence at the 2007 Contest in Helsinki, ČT held a national final to select the first Czech entry. Eurosong 2007 featured 10 songs, with the voting for the winner through SMS voting. However one song was withdrawn before the show began, leaving only 9 songs to compete, the winner was rock band Kabát with the song Malá dáma. At the contests semi-final on 10 May 2007 the Czech Republic performed 16th in the semi-final, for the 2008 Contest in Belgrade, Serbia, ČT again held a national final to select the entry for the country. 10 acts again competed for the chance to represent the Czech Republic in Serbia, despite placing in the bottom two twice, ČT confirmed that they would participate at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow, Russia. ČT decided to hold a selection for the artist who would represent the country at the contest in Russia. The broadcaster chose Romani band Gipsy. cz in January 2009 to compete in Moscow – the band had previously competed in the two national finals, coming both times in the top three. Two songs were presented to the Czech public to vote on, Aven Romale, after voting had concluded after 14 days, the final winner was Aven Romale, which featured lead singer Radoslav Banga dressing-up as a super-hero character, Super Gypsy. The group performed 2nd on the night of the first semi-final of the contest, however the group managed to receive nul points from the 20 countries voting in the semi-final, becoming the 16th entry to achieve this result since the current voting method was introduced in 1975. On 22 July 2009 ČT officially announced their withdrawal from the 2010 Contest, stating a lack of interest from the Czech public to the contest, the song however failed to qualify from the semi-final. However it did give the Czech Republic their best score and placed 13th with 33 points, on 31 August 2015, ČT announced that it would participate in the 2016 edition, in-which they qualified to final for the first time in Czech Republics Eurovision history. The placement in the final was 25 out of 26 countries, the televoting gave Czech Republic zero points and the juries 41 points

17.
Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Hungary has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 14 times since making its debut in 1994. Hungary attempted to participate in 1993 but failed to qualify from a qualifying competition set up for seven former eastern bloc countries. Hungarys first contest in 1994 remains its most successful, with Friderika Bayer finishing in fourth place, Hungary would not return to the top ten for 13 years, until Magdi Rúzsa finished ninth in 2007. This was followed in 2014 by András Kállay-Saunders, who gave Hungary its fourth top ten placement and best result since 1994, when he finished fifth. The countrys first entry would have been Andrea Szuláks in 1993 but a round was installed just for former Eastern Bloc countries. The first real participation was of Friderika Bayer in 1994, after three rounds of voting the Hungarian entry had taken the top marks each time and was in contention to win. However, as the competition progressed it attracted fewer votes, though it ended up in a credible fourth place. This made Hungary the only debuting nation to lead the voting, the 1995 entry was not as successful, garnering only 3 points, narrowly beating last placed Germany. In 1996 Hungary suffered another qualification lost when Gjon Delhusas song didnt make it through the pre-qualification round, Hungary began a hiatus from the competition after the 1998 contest, returning in 2005 when they reached a 12th place in the final with NOX. Hungary however announced not to again in 2006, although it returned to the contest in 2007 with Magdi Rúzsa. She came 9th in Helsinki with her song Unsubstantial Blues, the first Hungarian entry in English, after coming last in the semi-final in the 2008 contest, Magyar Televízió, the Hungarian broadcaster, confirmed Hungarys participation at the 2009 contest in Russia. Ádok eventually finished 15th in the second semi-final, failing to qualify Hungary to the final for the second time. On 27 December 2010, it was confirmed that MTV had agreed to return to the 2011 edition, on 22 May 2011, MTV confirmed their 2012 participation. In 2013, Hungary made it to the Top 10, when ByeAlex reached the 10th place with Kedvesem. They achieved even more success in 2014, when András Kállay-Saunders reached the 5th place with his song Running, achieving the best result Hungary has had since their first participation in 1994. Hungary is one of two countries to have unsuccessfully attempted to participate in both 1993 and 1996. The official Eurovision site does not count either year in Hungarys list of appearances, as of 2016, Hungarys voting history is as follows, Composer Award Points to and from Hungary eurovisioncovers. co. uk

18.
Montenegro in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Montenegro debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2007. Previously it participated as part of Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro, the 2005 entrants from Serbia and Montenegro, No Name, were from Montenegro, as were the 1983 and 1984 entrants for Yugoslavia. Since Montenegro became an independent state on 21 May 2006, the nation has taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest, the country made its solo debut in the 2007 contest and so far has managed mediocre results with qualifying twice for the grand final. It contributed for some good results for Ex-Yugoslavia and Serbia. 2009 saw the third best result to date finishing 11th place in the first semi-final. In November 2009 RTCG announced that Montenegro would withdraw from the 2010 contest, RTCG submitted an application for the 2011 contest, which was held in Düsseldorf, Germany. For the next years after 2007, Montenegro have been starting the first semi-final for three years in a row until 2013 when they were allocated to the half of the first semi-final. In 2014, Montenegro qualified for the Grand Final for the first time in its history with Sergej Ćetkovićs Moj svijet, in 2015, Montenegro qualified for the Grand Final for the second time with Knez who performed song Adio, composed by Zeljko Joksimovic. Song Adio has two versions, on English and French language, Knez managed their best result ever, finishing in the 13th place. ^ Contains some phrases in Montenegrin and German, as of 20163, Montenegros voting history is as follows,3. Montenegro in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest Serbia and Montenegro in the Eurovision Song Contest Yugoslavia in the Eurovision Song Contest Points to and from Montenegro eurovisioncovers. co. uk

19.
Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Italy has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 42 times since making its debut at the first contest in 1956. It was one of seven countries that competed at the very first contest. Italy competed at the contest frequently until 1997, after a fourteen-year absence, the country competed in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. Italy has won the contest twice, in 1958, Domenico Modugno finished third with the song Nel blu, dipinto di blu. Renamed Volare, the became a huge international hit, reaching the US number one spot. Emilio Pericoli also finished third in 1963, before Italy won for the first time in 1964 with Gigliola Cinquetti, Cinquetti returned to the contest in 1974 and finished second with the song Si, losing to ABBA. Italy then finished third in 1975 with Wess and Dori Ghezzi, the countrys best result of the 1980s was Umberto Tozzi and Raf finishing third in 1987. Italys second victory in the contest came in 1990 with Toto Cutugno, other good 1990s results were Mia Martini in 1992 and Jalisse in 1997, who both finished fourth. After 1997, Italy withdrew from the competition, the EBU announced that they would work harder to bring Italy back to the contest in 2010, along with former participants Monaco and Austria, but again Italy did not participate in the contest. Italys return to the contest proved to be successful, with Raphael Gualazzi finishing second, Italy has finished in the top ten in four of the last six contests. In 2015, Il Volo won the televoting receiving votes from all countries, since the introduction of the 50/50 voting system in 2009, this was the first time that the winner of the viewers vote did not win the contest. Italy has withdrawn from the Eurovision Song Contest a number of times, the first withdrawal was in 1981, when RAI stated that interest had diminished in the country. This absence continued through the year, before Italy returned in 1983. Italy again withdrew in 1986 when RAI decided not to enter the contest, from 1994 to 1996 Italy withdrew again, with RAI citing a lack of interest in participating. Italy returned in 1997, before withdrawing again without explanation, none of the Eurovision winning songs were particularly successful in the Italian charts. Despite the Eurovision contests taking place more than a month before the vote, Italian censors refused to allow the contest. The song thus remained censored on most Italian state TV and radio stations for over a month, at the contest in Brighton, Cinquetti finished second, losing to ABBA. Sì went on to be a UK top ten hit, peaking at number eight and it also reached the German top 20

20.
Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010
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The Netherlands entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 will be organised by TROS. In November a poll conducted by private broadcaster RTL4 revealed that 86% of those polled would agree to a possible withdraw by the Netherlands due to the results received in past contests. TROS has announced that the 2010 Eurovision entry will be composed by Pierre Kartner, Kartner was announced as the greatest Dutch composer by the Dutch Top 40 For the first time since 1998 the Netherlands song was performed in Dutch. The Nationaal Songfestival 2010 was held on 7 February 2010, several relatively unknown artists were presented to the Dutch public, and Kartner himself selected the winner after listening to the different versions of his song. The artists were coached by many famous Dutch artists, among them Jan Keizer, Guus Meeuwis, Edsilia Rombley, Marianne Weber, René Froger, kartners song Ik ben verliefd, was revealed on 18 December on Radio 2s radio show Gouden uren. In the show a demo by Kartner was aired, but at Eurovision the song will be performed by a different singer, TROS announced the five competing artists in Nationaal Songfestival 2010 on 22 January, which included four solo singers and an all-female group. Each singer was scounted by a well known Dutch personalities, and was coached by them in the contest, the five singers performed Ik ben verliefd, Shalalie in five different versions, and the winner was to be selected by a four-member professional jury and the studio audience. The four member jury was radio DJ Daniël Dekker, singer and actress Tatjana Simić, singer George Baker, Johnny Logan also performed his Eurovision Song Contest 1980 winning song Whats Another Year. In the case of a tie Kartner had to select the winner from the two participants and he first attempted to select the winner by flipping a coin, but after discovering that it was against the rules chose Sieneke. The initiative has been supported by for Eurovision entrant for the Netherlands Marga Bult, despite criticism Ik ben verliefd entered into the Dutch Single Top 100 at #13, as well as reaching #1 on the Dutch iTunes download chart. The following week, after the Dutch radio campaign, Ik ben verliefd went to #1 on the Single Top 100, the Netherlands competed in the second semi-final of the contest on 27 May, performing in the second half of the draw. The Dutch commentators were Cornald Maas, the Dutch commentator since 2004, the song did not progress to the final, the 29 points it received placed it 14th out of 17 competitors for 10 qualifying places. Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest Eurovision Song Contest 2010

21.
Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010
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Switzerland participated at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, that was held in Oslo, Norway. SRG SSR announced plans for the 2010 Contest which, as every year since 2005. Certain criteria for competing artists are being set by SRG SSR, artists competing for Switzerland must have, Television and stage experience Made at least one video Released at least one CD which placed among the top 50 in an official chart. There was also no limitations on the nationality of the performers, submissions were allowed to be submitted to the broadcasting group until 22 October. A panel, made up of experts from the three broadcasters, selected the winner from those submitted to the group, and announced their decision in December 2009. Von der Heide had previously participated in the 1999 German national final, the song was revealed on 9 January at the SwissAwards show, broadcast on all channels in SRG SSR. Von der Heide promoted his song for Eurovision before competing in the second semi-final, a new version of Il pleut de lor was performed during the Latvian national final on 27 February. Von der Heide also released a video with the studio version of the new version of the song in March 2010. Von der Heide released German and English versions of Il pleut de lor, Es regnet Gold, von der Heide performed at the Eurovision in Concert preview concert in the Amsterdam municipality of Zaanstad in the Netherlands on 24 April, along with 17 other competitors. He performed Il pleut de lor as well as his German national final entry in 1999, Bye Bye Bar. As Switzerland had not competed in the final of the contest since 2006, Switzerland was drawn to perform in the second semi-final, held on 27 May, at the semi-final allocation draw on 7 February, performing in the first half of the show. At the running order draw on 23 March, Switzerland was chosen as a wildcard, at the end of the voting Switzerland failed to qualify to the final for the 4th consecutive time, finishing last out of the 17 entries, receiving only two points from Georgia. This was Switzerlands 6th last place finish in their history in the contest, after finishing last in 1964,1967,1974,1998 and the 2004 semi-final. After failing to qualify, von der Heide joked that he would go again for Switzerland with a duet with Swedish singer and former Eurovision winner Carola, several Eurovision songs charted in the Swiss Music Charts. The winning song, Lenas Satellite for Germany, reached number one, Satellite is the first Eurovision winning song to reach the top of the Swiss charts since 1982, with Nicoles Ein bißchen Frieden, also for Germany. Entries from Denmark, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Romania, Armenia, Turkey, Sweden, Iceland, Ukraine and the Swiss entry itself also charted. Il pleut de lor, which charted at #65, was Michael von der Heides first ever song to chart on the Swiss singles chart after 12 years in the music business, Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest Eurovision Song Contest 2010 Rules for 2010 selection SRG SSR idée suisse

22.
Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010
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Germany is the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 winner, which was held in May 2010 in Bærum, Norway. News on planning for Germanys Eurovision Song Contest 2010 entry spread shortly after the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 had ended and it was revealed that Raab had refused the request, but that ProSieben had accepted the offer to work with ARD/NDR. More information was revealed on 20 July, with the news that Raab would in fact work with the two broadcasters in preparing for the 2010 Contest, a total of 20 participants were chosen for the final stage of the process. Most of the participants were inexperienced and young singers, Raab took a lead role in the programmes as head of the jury, and was joined by 16 other celebrity judges from the music and entertainment industries. A total of 20 acts took part in the shows on 2 and 9 February. These ten acts performed popular hits, with five acts from each show qualifying to the elimination shows. Between 16 February and 2 March these ten acts were eliminated to five, the qualifying acts progressed to the quarter-final, broadcast on ARD, on 5 March. Four advanced to the semi-final on 9 March, broadcast on ProSieben, in the final on 12 March the two finalists performed a total of three songs, each artist performed the first two songs, Bee and Satellite, as well as another individual song. There was a total of two voting rounds, the song for each singer was determined in the first round, while the final winner was selected in the second round. Lena Meyer-Landrut was the winner with the song Satellite, with Braun coming in place with her individual song I Care for You. The shows were hosted by Matthias Opdenhövel and Sabine Heinrich in Cologne. By 13 March Meyer-Landrut led the German iTunes download charts with all three of her songs, Satellite taking the top spot, followed by Bee in second and Love Me in third place. Jennifer Brauns song I Care for You took fourth place in the chart, followed by her versions of Bee, a maxi single featuring Meyer-Landruts three songs was released on 16 March. Satellite entered the German singles chart at one and has been certified platinum since. On 16 March 2010, the video premiered on public broadcaster Das Erste right before Germanys most watched evening news bulletin Tagesschau, shortly after, it was simultaneously shown on four private stations before the start of their evening prime time programmes. The two officially uploaded YouTube videos of the song have jointly generated more than 68 million views since their release, as a member of the Big Four, Germany automatically qualified for the final on 29 May. Lena Meyer-Landrut performed 22nd out of the 25 participating countries and won the contest with 246 points and it is the first time that Germany has won the contest since 1982 and the first time as a unified state. As such, Germany hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2011, Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest Eurovision Song Contest 2010 Unser Star für Oslo official website

23.
United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010
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The United Kingdom participated at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, held in Oslo, Norway in May. The BBC announced on 29 January after months of speculation that British record producer and songwriter Pete Waterman would write the UK entry for the 2010 Contest. The song, That Sounds Good to Me, was performed on 12 March 2010 on Eurovision, Your Country Needs You, the song came in last place. The song was 12th in the line-up for the Grand Final, after the United Kingdoms 5th place finish in the 2009 Contest, thanks to Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jade Ewen, there was wide speculation on how the BBC would select the 2010 entry. The casting company also tweeted that a new songwriter, rather than last years Andrew Lloyd Webber, would be responsible for writing the UKs entry for Oslo. On 24 November 2009, British and Irish media reported that the BBC were in talks with Blue singer Duncan James, Barlow was named as a composer while James would perform the song in Oslo. However, news of castings for this years Eurovision entry suggested that these rumours were unlikely to be correct, in January 2010 the BBC continued to be tight-lipped over its selection for 2010. A teaser on the BBC Eurovision indicated that an announcement would be made soon, on 29 January it was finally announced that Pete Waterman would write the British song for 2010. He is also known as one of the judges of the original Pop Idol, Waterman had previous Eurovision experience, having produced the 1984 Cypriot entry, Anna Marie Lena. On 19 February the BBC confirmed that Mike Stock would join his Stock Aitken Waterman partner in co-writing the British Eurovision entry for 2010. An expert panel in the studio reduced this number to three, who then performed different versions of the Stock Waterman written Eurovision entry, with the deciding the winner. When interviewed Waterman confirmed the song contained a key change and described the title as obvious he also said Its like entering a competition every time you write, youre after a number one, not a number two. Both Eurovision 2009 winner Alexander Rybak, and the group Sugababes, the Sugababes performed their newest single, Wear My Kiss The show was only watched by 2.9 million people,4 million less than the 6.9 million who watched the programme last year. The six acts each performed a Stock Aitken Waterman classic, as well as a medley of ABBA songs Take A Chance On Me. Waterman then selected his three acts from the six, Alexis Gerred, Esma Akkilic and Josh Dubovie. These three acts went on to sing the Eurovision song - That Sounds Good to Me - with a public televote selecting the winning performer - Josh Dubovie. On his official website he said the song was remixed on 26 March, suggesting the new and he suggested the focus was now on rehearsals and the performance and said But for the song itself, thats all over and completed, I can do no more. A studio version of That Sounds Good to Me was broadcast on Swedish radio on 22 April, however this was not the final version of the song, which was premiered on 24 April at the Eurovision in Concert preview concert in Zaanstad, the Netherlands

24.
Monaco in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Monaco has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 24 times since its debut in 1959. The countrys only win in the contest came in 1971 when Séverine performed Un banc, un arbre, in 1972, Monaco was expected to host the contest, but declined. Monaco is still today, the only microstate which has won the Eurovision Song Contest, Monaco finished last at its first contest in 1959 before achieving three top three results in the 1960s. Two of these were achieved by François Deguelt, who finished third in 1960, romuald also finished third in 1964. Severines victory in 1971 was the first of five top four results in eight years, the others were achieved by Romauld, Mary Christy who was third in 1976, Michèle Torr, fourth in 1977 and Caline & Olivier Toussaint who were fourth in 1978. After participating in 1979, Monaco was absent from the contest for 25 years, Monaco returned to the contest for three years from 2004 to 2006 but failed to qualify from the semi-finals. The Monegasque broadcaster then withdrew from the contest saying that regional voting patterns in the contest have effectively given Monaco no chance of qualifying for the final, Monaco participated in the contest 21 times between its debut in 1959 and 1979. Afterwards the country withdrew from the contest for financial reasons and it only returned in 2004,25 years after its last participation. It withdrew again in 2007, after failing to qualify for the final for three consecutive years, Monaco won the contest in 1971, with the song Un banc, un arbre, une rue, performed by Séverine. The Monegasque victory is rather particular in the history of Eurovision because the songwriter, the singer and the director were not from the country they represented, Séverine even declared to journalists that she had never set foot in Monaco, forgetting that the video-clip was filmed there. Séverines producer was dishonest with her and stole her prize, thus she never got paid for her victory, nevertheless, the singer is still a great fan of the contest. Monacos next best placing has been second which it has achieved once at the 1962 and it has been third three times, in 1960,1964 and 1976, and last twice, in 1959 and 1966. Monaco is among the eight countries which finished last on their first participation, the others being Austria, Portugal, Malta, Turkey, Lithuania, the Czech Republic and San Marino. After winning in 1971, the decided to organise the 1972 contest as an open-air show. However, because of a lack of funds and material, Télé Monte Carlo sought help from the French public broadcaster, ORTF, because TMC wanted the show to be held in Monaco while ORTF wanted it in France, negotiations never succeeded. Monaco left it up to the EBU, the EBU asked Spain and Germany, who respectively finished second and third at the 1971 contest, but the countries were not interested in organising the 1972 contest. It was eventually organised by the BBC in Edinburgh, Monaco was absent from the contest between 1980 and 2003, before returning for three years from 2004–2006, but Maryon, Lise Darly and Séverine Ferrer all failed to progress from the semi-finals. TMC broadcast the 2007 contest opening the way for participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, despite this, Monaco did not compete in Moscow in 2009

25.
Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Luxembourg has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 37 times since making their debut at the first contest in 1956. From 1956 to 1993, Luxembourg missed only one contest, in 1959, since 1994, Luxembourg has not participated in the contest. Luxembourg has won the contest a total of five times, the only countries with more victories are Sweden, with six, and Ireland, with seven. Their first victory was in 1961 when Jean-Claude Pascal won with the song Nous les amoureux, France Gall gave them their second victory in 1965 with Poupée de cire, poupée de son. Luxembourgs fifth victory was in 1983 when Corinne Hermes won with Si la vie est cadeau, since being relegated from taking part in 1994, the country withdrew from the contest indefinitely. Luxembourgs Minister of Culture, Maggy Nagel, expressed her desire for the country to return to the contest and this was later explained as a misunderstanding by the Culture Minister. A collaboration with San Marino has been proposed, but later SMRTV clarified that there have only been talks between the two countries and that the broadcaster is evaluating other proposals and it was later announced that the project would not move forward due to funding problems. In 2004, RTL were to return to Eurovision after an absence of 11 years, however, after monetary issues, Luxembourg withdrew. Strong rumours indicated that RTL would participate at the 2005 contest, however, RTL later decided against it, and said that they would never return. In 2008, RTL later reiterated their lack of interest in returning to the contest, in recent years the Luxembourg branch of OGAE has been campaigning for Luxembourg to return to the contest. However, they would have had to secure fees regarding participation, although it was rumoured that Luxembourg would return in the 2012 edition of the contest, RTL has announced that no such intentions exist at present. On 31 July 2014, RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg confirmed that Luxembourg would not be returning to the contest in 2015 and it was reported on 26 October 2014 that the countrys Minister of Culture, Maggy Nagel, expressed her desire for the country to return to the contest. This was later confirmed by Nagel to be a misunderstanding and that the country would not be returning, however, on 24 November 2014, it was announced that Mersch had failed to raise the necessary funds in time for the project to move forward. On 21 June 2016, the Petitions Committee of the Government of Luxembourg received five petitions on various matters in relation to the Grand Duchy, one of which was for Luxembourg to return to the Eurovision Song Contest. The Luxembourg Government will therefore hold a debate to discuss the proposals set out on the petition, nevertheless, RTL reiterated its intention not to participate on 22 August. Between 1956 and 1993 Luxembourg was only absent from the Contest once, however, in 1993 Luxembourg was relegated from taking part in the 1994 Contest, and has yet to return. Due to the small size and the national broadcasters penchant for internal selection, most of Luxembourgs entrants came from outside the Grand Duchy. All five of the artists from Luxembourg were foreign, four were French

26.
Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010
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Ireland selected its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 by a national selection on 5 March 2010. After an open call for songs, Irelands national broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann announced on 10 February the five participants who would compete in Eurosong 2010, the Irish national broadcater, RTÉ, hosts the event each year and organizes the selection process for its entry. For the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest RTÉ decided to hold a five performer national final to choose the song to represent them, on 10 December RTÉ announced a public call for songs for the 2010 edition of Eurosong. The judging panel will have final say on the performers of each song, submissions could be sent to RTÉ until 1 February at noon. On 10 February RTÉ revealed the names of the five Eurosong 2010 participants, the line-up was a star-studded and international one, which included Mikey Graham of Irish boyband Boyzone and Niamh Kavanagh, Eurovision Song Contest 1993 winner for Ireland. Marc Paelinck, a Belgian composer, had three past Eurovision songs - Belgium in 2002 and 2004, and Malta in 2009. Niall Mooney and Jonas Gladnikoff were part of the team behind last years Irish entry Et Cetera and they were joined by successful Swedish songwriters Mårten and Lina Eriksson. German songwriters Ralph Siegel and John OFlynn, aka Bernd Meinunger, had written 16 Eurovision entries together over 4 countries, RTÉ held a draw to determine the running order for the contest in February 2010 in the presence of an independent auditor. Leanne Moore would open the contest and Niamh Kavanagh would close the performances, the five entries were broadcast for the first time on 4 March on Derek Mooneys self-titled RTÉ Radio 1 program. Eurosong 2010 was held on 5 March during a The Late Late Show special at the RTÉ television studios in Dublin, the show was broadcast on RTÉ One, and online over the RTÉ website and the EBUs official web stream ESCTV. Juries gave 12,10,8,6 and 4 points to each song, dana performed her Eurovision winning song All Kinds of Everything and Johnny Logan performed his 1980 Eurovision winning song Whats Another Year. At the end of the voting Its for You was revealed as the winner after getting maximum points from all jury regions, although it was revealed that the Irish Eurovision panel wanted her to win, before the selection took place. Justin Lee Collins was not happy at this result, as he participated with a song written by, Ronan Keating. Ireland competed in the second semi-final of the contest on 27 May, the song was performed in the 12th position, following the entry from Slovenia and preceding the entry from Bulgaria. In the voting for the Final, Ireland was awarded 7 points from the United Kingdom, had only a televoting and not jury vote been cast, Ireland would have been awarded 12 points as they were the most popular with the British audience. RTÉ television commentary was provided by Marty Whelan in all three shows, with former Irish Eurovision entrant Maxi providing radio commentary for the second semi-final, Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest Eurovision Song Contest 2010 RTÉ Eurovision website RTÉ

27.
Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010
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Denmark competed in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, held in Bærum, Norway in May 2010. The Danish broadcaster DR held the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix contest to select the entry for the contest. These ten songs would be made up of six selected by an internal jury from those submitted to DR from a public call for songs. They would be joined by four songs from artists invited by the broadcaster to compete, songwriters could submit their entries to DR until the deadline on 5 October. On that day DR revealed that they had received 562 entries for the contest and they also revealed that one of the entries came from DQ, who represented Denmark at the 2007 Contest, failing to qualify from the semi-final. 562 entries were received by DR, and the broadcaster revealing the 10 competing acts on 12 January 2010, on 12 January DR announced the ten participants, seven acts from those submitted and three wildcards, Bryan Rice, Kaya Brüel, and girlband Sukkerchok. Following media speculations, it was confirmed on 13 January by Jan Lagermand Lundme that Zindy Laursen had been invited to take part as a wildcard, performing the self-penned song All About Me. In the second round of voting, the four qualifiers competed against each other in pairs, both of the latter songs won, making the Final Round a match-up between Chanée & Nevergreen and Bryan Rice. The winner of Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2010 was the song In a Moment Like This performed by Chanée & Nevergreen, Denmark qualified from the second semi-final of the contest, on 27 May, therefore progressing to the final on 29 May. They ended up in 4th place with 149 points, achieving their best place in the contest since 2001, Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest Eurovision Song Contest 2010 Official Dansk Melodi Grand Prix site DR Rules of Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2010 Official Chanée & Nevergreen home page

28.
Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010
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Finland participated at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 held in Bærum, Oslo, Norway. Yle hold a final, Euroviisut 2010, to select the 2010 Finnish entry. The 2010 edition of Euroviisut took place in January 2010, featuring three semi-finals before the final, held on 30 January, some changes were made to the format of the contest used in the 2009 contest. An internal jury selected the best songs from the public submissions, public SMS voting was also be used for two weeks in October, and afterwards the top three songs were selected to compete in the live semi-finals. Five songs took part in the three semi-finals, beginning on 8 January 2010 at the Tampere Exhibition and Sports Centre in Tampere. Three songs from each semi-final qualified via a vote to the final on 30 January 2010. Only 2 demos could be sent for each artist or songwriter, and the artist performing in the demos must perform during the semi-finals and the final. There were no restrictions as to the language of the songs, however at least one songwriter, the final list of the 12 invited artists was revealed on 30 September 2009 by Yle. Three more songs were selected in October through a public SMS vote, Yle announced that the winner of the popular tango song and dance festival Tangomarkkinat would gain a place at Euroviisut 2010. The winner of the contest was Amadeus Lundberg, who received the invitation to perform in January, on 30 September Yle released the names of the 12 invited artists for the 2010 Euroviisut contest. They include Lundberg, tipped as one of the favourites to win the contest in January, the 12 competing artists will be joined by three more artists chosen 30 selected entries from an open call of songs by Yle. These 30 entries were chosen from 267 submitted to Yle for the contest, on 30 November the twelve songs chosen for the invited artists to perform in the contest were revealed by Yle. On 17 October the three qualifying artists were revealed by Yle - they were Bääbs, Linn Nygård and Sister Twister, Linn Nygård and Sister Twister both represented Finland at the junior MGP Nordic contest in 2007. On that day also the twelve invited artists were divided into their respective semi-finals, each semi-final contained five acts - four invited artists, and one online qualifier. Each semi-final, held on consecutive Fridays in January 2009, was held at the Tampere Exhibition and Sports Centre in Tampere. Three songs from each semi-final qualified via a vote to the final on 30 January 2010. On 17 October the three qualifying artists were revealed by Yle - they were Bääbs, Linn Nygård and Sister Twister, Linn Nygård and Sister Twister both represented Finland at the junior MGP Nordic contest in 2007. On that day also the twelve invited artists were divided into their respective semi-finals, on 22 October Yle revealed the final line-up for the semi-finals, including the three online qualifiers

29.
Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010
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Norway hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 at the Telenor Arena in Oslo, after Alexander Rybak won the 2009 Contest with Fairytale. Norsk rikskringkasting used the Melodi Grand Prix contest to select the 2010 entry to represent the host country, after winning the 2009 Contest Norway became the host of the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 which took place in Bærum just outside Oslo. NRK announced that a total of 150 million kroner would be spent to host the contest. NRK announced that the 2010 Contest would be held in the Oslo metropolitan area, arguing that Oslo was the city with the required capacity, venues. After selecting two candidates for the show, NRK chose the newly constructed Telenor Arena, situated in the neighbouring municipality Bærum and this arena beat the Oslo Spektrum, the host of the 1996 Contest. NRK announced the rules for the 2010 Melodi Grand Prix on 6 July 2009, as with last years contest, the contest was only open to Norwegian nationals, with no more than 50% of the total composition team being non-Norwegian. The submission deadline for the contest was set for the 1 September 2009, the hosts for the contest were revealed by NRK on 13 November, Per Sundnes returned as host for the third time, and was joined by TV and radio host Marte Stokstad. As since 2006 MGP consisted of a total of five live shows, like 2009, each semi-final had seven songs competing for a place in the final, with another two songs getting a second chance in the Siste Sjansen round. On 8 September 2009, NRK revealed that they had received over 1000 songs, almost double the number submitted to the 2009 Contest. The first information on the contest was released by NRK on 22 October, the second semi-final was held on 16 January in Bodø, and the third semi-final was held in Skien on the 23 January. The Siste Sjansen round was held on 30 January in Sarpsborg, on 27 November NRK released the song titles and songwriters of the 21 competing songs. On 17 December NRK announced the artists for the third semi-final, songwriter of Hold On, Be Strong and she would be joined in the semi-final in Skien by Fred Endresen, Belinda Braza, Didrik Solli-Tangen, The Diamond, Karoline Garfjell and recently reformed British-Norwegian boy band a1. Four heats were held, in Ørland, Bodø, Skien, the first semi-final was held on 8 January at the Ørland hovedflystasjon in Ørland. NRK announced the artists in this semi-final on 4 December 2009. 30 second clips of the seven songs were released by NRK on 5 January, the first song of the semi-final was Synk eller svøm by Gaute Ormåsen, the only song in the contest performed in the Norwegian language. The song is a pop song, with Gaute joined on stage by a folk band, including piano, drums, tuba, double bass. Lene Alexandra followed Ormåsen, returning to the contest after qualifying to the Siste Sjansen round in 2008, primadonna, her 2010 contribution, is an electronic pop song, with Lene joined by two female backing singers and two male backing dancers, all in blue and black. Johnny Hide performed next on stage, with the song Rewind Love, Hide performed the song with an electric guiatar, and was joined on stage by two male backing sigers, a pianist, drummer and guitarist, with all performers dressed in grey and black

30.
Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010
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Portugal will select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 through the Festival da Canção competition, organised by Portuguese national broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal. Festival da Canção 2010 will be held one week in early March 2010, with semi-finals on 2 and 4 March. The contest will be held at the Campo Pequeno, an old bullring, in Lisbon, until mid January, authors, singers and groups can submit entries for the competition through the RTP website. An expert jury will select between 30 and 35 entries to progress to a vote, as was introduced in 2009 Contest. Voters from across the world can vote for their songs over the internet. RTP will now allow foreign composers to compete in Festival da Canção, however the competing performers must be Portuguese, and the song must also be performed in the Portuguese language. Two semi-finals will be held, each containing 12 songs, televoting will solely select the top six songs from each semi-final which will progress to the final. In the final the winner will be selected through 50/50 jury,420 songs were submitted to RTP, a slight increase from last years total. 30 songs were selected by a jury of José Poiares, the Portuguese Head of Delegation. The 30 songs were announced on 20 January, and 90 second clips of each song were placed on its website on 21 January for the voting, the following day RTP disqualified the song, leaving 29 songs in the contest. Voting closed at 23,59 GMT on 27 January, with Filipa Azevedo declared the winner of the voting with 2,992 votes, the top 24 songs will progress to the semi-finals, with the running order decided on 1 February by a draw. The semi-finals of Festival da Canção 2010 will be held on 2 and 4 March, the 24 songs from that qualified from the online selection will compete for twelve places in the final. The semi-final allocation and running order for the songs was held on 1 February at the RTP headquarters in Lisbon. This will be the first Festival da Canção to be broadcast in HD, the first semi-final was held on 2 March. From the twelve competing acts Filipa Galvão Telles, Jorge Guerreiro, The Agency, Nuno Pinto, Filipa Azevedo,11,656 televotes were cast during the semi-final, with Nuno Pinto winning the semi-final. The second semi-final was held on 4 March, six acts were selected from the 12 act line-up to progress to the final, Banda Trocopasso, Ricardo Martins, Seis Po Meia Dúzia, Catarina Pereira, Gonçalo Tavares, and Rui Nova. 23,878 televotes were cast during the second semi-final, with Catarina Pereira the winner of this semi-final, the final of Festival da Canção 2010 was held on 6 March. Filipa Azevedo was declared the winner with the song Há dias assim, the televoters favourite, Catarina Pereira, failed to win as she only came fifth with the juries, placing second overall

31.
Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010
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Israel participated at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, held in Oslo, Norway in May. The Israeli entry was performed by Harel Skaat, with the song decided by a national final, Kdam Eurovision. On 25 December IBA confirmed that they had selected Skaat to represent the country in Norway. The song that Skaat performed at Eurovision was decided by a final, Kdam Eurovision, held on 15 March, televised by Reshet, an operator of Channel 2. IBA announced the four song-titles and songwriting teams on 22 February, the contest was laler delayed by one day, to 15 March. IBA released the four songs on their website on 7 March, milim was the winning song of the contest, getting full marks from all five jury groups and the televote. Performing 3rd at the semifinals, they advanced to the Grand Finals of the contest, despite of this achievement, they swept all titles at Marcel Bezençon Awards this year. Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest Eurovision Song Contest 2010

32.
Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010
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Greece, in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, selected the song Opa sung by Giorgos Alkaios & Friends as their entry, by a national selection on 12 March 2010. The songs that each singer and ERT picked were first heard by the public through ERTs website on 26 February, following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004 contest, Greece has had a top ten placing each year. The least successful result was in 1998 when with the song Mia Krifi Evesthisia by Thalassa placing twentieth, receiving only twelve points in total, the Greek national broadcaster, Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, is in charge of Greeces participation each year, including the selection process for its entry. A departure from this method was a reality talent competition format inspired by the Idol series that ran for many months in 2004. The notability of the participants has also varied, from previously unsigned acts to established music superstars, since the 2010s ERT has used national finals with generally less-established acts. On 12 January it was decided that the final would be pushed back from to 10 February March 2010. By late January, ERT once again chose to move the date of the final, the participating songs were scheduled to be revealed the week before the final on 5 March during a two-hour televised program as opposed to the press conference used in previous years. The artistic direction of the final was headed by Fokas Evangelinos. The winning act was chosen via 50% televoting and 50% jury voting, after an open call to record labels to submit proposals, ERT officially announced on 18 December 2009 the ten participants for the Greek national final. The majority of the performers are newcomers in the Greek music scene. On 12 January 2010, Despina Ricci announced her withdrawal from the national final citing a busy schedule, her spot was not filled leaving nine participants for the final. Later on 25 February 2010, Eleftheria Eleftheriou was disqualified as well, after her song Tables Are Turning was leaked onto the internet, the 5 March presentation show was still broadcast the following week, with the public viewing each participants song in the form of a video. It was broadcast on NET and ERT World and was hosted by Dimitra Agkriotou, the national final took place on 12 March 2010 and was hosted by Rika Vaggiani and Jenny Balatsinou. The winner was decided through televoting and jury, each weighted equally, the winner was Giorgos Alkaios & Friends with the song Opa. The placings of the participants were not revealed. On 15 March 2010, ERT revealed the jury and televoting results of the top three songs, songs were awarded points as they would in the Eurovision Song Contest. As the top three songs were all tied in points, the public vote prevailed with Giorgos Alkaios winning. Due to financial constraints facing ERT, the entry had a limited budget compared to past years, with ERT only paying for the music video

33.
Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010
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Malta selected its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 on February 2010 in The GO Malta EuroSong 2010 competition, organised by the Public Broadcasting Services, the Maltese broadcaster. At the final of the contest held on 20 February Thea Garrett was chosen by jury, maltas entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 was selected by the GO Malta Eurosong 2010 contest. 36 songs were selected in a call for songs by PBS. It has been announced that songwriters can enter more than one composition,36 artists were chosen to compete in six semi-finals, held between 9 December and 13 January. The votes of a jury and televoting selected twenty songs to progress to the final of the contest. The winner again selected by jury and televoting, with each getting a 50% say in the final result. The semi-finals were incorporated into the new talent show L-Isfida, in November it was announced that plans for the competition were paralysed by legal disputes between PBS and Grace Borg. Despite this the Maltese Head of Delegation, Joe Dimech, has denied that the national selection process was in danger. New dates for the selection were to be made after missing their planned start date of 9 November for the first stage of the contest. From 2 to 4 December an international jury selected 36 songs from the submitted entries, on 4 December after three days of judging PBS released the names of the 36 competing songs. These include two former Eurovision representatives, Mike Spiteri and Miriam Christine, as well as many names familiar to the Maltese Eurovision selection process, after judging the 36 songs on 4 December PBS later announced the running order and semi-final allocation of each of the 36 songs. The six semi-finals were held weekly from 9 December to 13 January, during the L-Isfida talent show, the first semi-final was held on 9 December 2009. Televoting was open from the end of the show until Saturday 12 December at 16,30 CET, the second semi-final was held on 16 December 2009. Televoting was open from the end of the show until Saturday 19 December at 16,30 CET, the third semi-final was held on 23 December 2009. Televoting was open from the end of the show until Saturday 26 December at 16,30 CET, the fourth semi-final was held on 30 December 2009. Televoting was open from the end of the show until Saturday 2 January 2010 at 16,30 CET, the fifth semi-final was held on 6 January 2010. Televoting was open from the end of the show until Saturday 9 January 2010 at 16,30 CET, the sixth semi-final was held on 13 January 2010. Televoting will open from the end of the show until Saturday 16 January 2010 at 16,30 CET.20 songs were selected from the 36 finalists, the draw for the running order in the final was held on 17 January

34.
Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Austria has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 49 times since its debut in 1957. The country has won twice, in 1966, with the song Merci Chérie by Udo Jürgens, Austria currently holds the record for longest gap between wins, with 48 years between victories. Austria finished last at its first attempt in the contest in 1957, before Liane Augustin gave the country its first top five result in 1958, having finished sixth in 1964 and fourth in 1965, Udo Jürgens won the contest at his third attempt in 1966. This would be Austrias only top three result of 20th century, the countrys best result over the next 46 years would be fifth place, which it achieved with Milestones in 1972, Waterloo & Robinson in 1976 and Thomas Forstner in 1989. Austria has finished last in the final a total of seven times, the country also finished last in the semi-final in 2012. After a three-year absence, ORF announced on 28 July 2010 that Austria would return to the contest in 2011, because of this, Austria became the first host country to receive nul points. Austria has opted out of participation in several Contests, the first of these was the 1969 Contest, which was staged in Madrid. As Spain was ruled at that time by Francisco Franco, Austria chose to boycott the Contest, the following year, Austria was again absent. This was due to the result in 1969 in which four songs tied for first place. From 1973 to 1975, Austria stayed away as well, the exact reason for this is unclear, however the scoring system in use at one of these Contests - allowing all entrants a guaranteed number of points - may have been a factor. The country was ineligible to compete in 1998 and 2001, as it had not achieved high placings in the five previous years. They returned for the 2007 contest in Helsinki, but came second to last in the semi-final, despite withdrawing, the final of the 2008 contest was screened on ORF. ORF decided not to participate in the 2009 contest, but did broadcast the final as in 2008, the EBU announced that they would work harder to bring Austria back to the contest in 2010, along with former participants Monaco and Italy. It was, however, confirmed that Austria would not participate in the 2010 Contest in Oslo, in July 2010, the chairman of ORF, Alexander Wrabetz, stated that Austria would return for the 2011 contest, due to it being held in its neighbour Germany. In 2011, Austria reached the final for the first time since 2004, ^ Specifically Styrian, a Southern Bavarian dialect spoken in Styria. ^ Specifically Mühlviertlerisch, a Central Bavarian dialect spoken in Upper Austria, ^ While Austria and Germany both finished with no points, Austria is listed as finishing ahead of Germany due to the tiebreaker rule that favours the song performed earliest in the running order. Therefore, Germany finished in 27th place, with Austria in 26th, if a country had won the previous year, they did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. In addition, back in 2004-2007, the top ten countries who were not members of the big four did not have to compete in the finals the following year

35.
France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010
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France will select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 through an internal selection by French broadcaster France Télévisions. Matadors song will be Allez Ola Olé, as announced on 24 February, after Patricia Kaas placed 8th at the 2009 Contest in Moscow, Russia, France 3 will continue with an internal selection for the French entry for the 2010 contest in Oslo, Norway. Bruno Berberes, the Head of Delegation for France for the time, has revealed that France Télévisions has secured a big name to represent France at the Contest in May 2010. Berberes said that We cant give less than Patricia Kaas after her success at Moscow, and it has been speculated that France Télévisions selected artist is a recent former Eurovision entry who scored well at the Contest. It was speculated that this was Natasha St-Pier, who achieved 4th place at the 2001 Contest, however Berberes has denied that France Télévisions have approached St-Pier to go to Oslo. It was said that France Télévisions would like to see beyond Eurovision, frances got very few chances to win Eurovision with this singer, Placek added. Matador was confirmed at the French representative at the contest on 19 February by Nicolas Pernikoff, entertainment manager at France 2, no information on the song selection has yet been announced. On 24 February it was announced that Matador will sing Allez Ola Olé at the contest, the songs title is a reference to the 1998 album Music of the World Cup, Allez. Ole. the official album for the 1998 World Cup, held in France, France 3 responded with positivity and support for Matadors entry, and his stage presentation and song to glow on Eurovision stage. On 19 March a one-minute clip of Allez Ola Olé was published on the website chartsinfrance. net, the song received positive feedback from the fan community, believing it will be singled out for its festive and upbeat nature in a year when ballads dominate the contest. As a member of the Big Four countries, France automatically qualifies to the final on 29 May, France will perform in 18th position. As will all automatic finalists, France was given one semi-final in which they were obligated to broadcast and this was initially decided to be the second semi-final on 27 May. However France 3 was given permission by the EBU to change its voting rights to the first semi-final on 25 May after scheduling problems prevented live broadcast of the second semi-final. At the same time, France 3 would commit itself to more intense promotion of the contest, France in the Eurovision Song Contest Eurovision Song Contest 2010 Huffington Post Analysis

36.
Morocco in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Morocco entered the Eurovision Song Contest for the first, and so far only, time at the Eurovision Song Contest 1980 with the song Bitaqat Hob, performed by Samira Bensaïd in the Arabic language. Their debut entry also marked the first time that Arabic was performed in the contest and their song for the contest was Bitaqat Khub, performed by famous Moroccan singer Samira Bensaïd. The song only received 7 points, all from Italy, and placed 18th, after their poor placing in the contest, SNRT announced that they would be withdrawing from the 1981 contest, and have never returned since. A rival Moroccan broadcaster to SNRT, 2M TV, has expressed their intention to join the European Broadcasting Union, should their application be successful, 2M TV, could potentially return Morocco to the contest. Table key As of 1980, Moroccos voting history is as follows, Points to and from Morocco eurovisioncovers. co. uk

37.
Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010
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Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins 2010 did contain three semi-finals held in January 2010, each containing 5 songs. 2 songs from every semi-final qualified to the final, held on 6 February. The four TV shows were hosted by Eva María Jónsdóttir and Ragnhildur Steinunn Jónsdóttir, Rules for the contest were released by RÚV in September 2009. A maximum of three compositions could be submitted by each composer, with all applicants having been Icelandic citizens, or have their residence in the island. Submissions were accepted until 5 October 2009 at midnight, a total of 150 compositions were submitted to RÚV, a significant decrease from last years contest. The fifteen performing songs, their performers and authors were announced by RÚV on 18 December, the first semi-final was held on 9 January 2010. The show featured last years Icelandic entrant Yohanna, and Ingó, Yohannas runner-up at Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins 2009, the two winners of this semi-final were Íris Hólm with the song The One and Matthias Matthiasson with Out of Sight. The second semi-final was held on 16 January 2010, Jógvan Hansen and Hvanndalsbræður qualified to the final by a public televote out of the five competing acts. The third and final semi-final was held on 23 January 2010, sigurjón Brink and Hera Björk were chosen by a public televote to qualify to the final out of the five competing acts. The final was held on 6 February, after a recap of the contest was held on 30 January, the six semi-final qualifiers performed again, and the televoters decided the winner. After the top two were revealed it was announced that Hera Björk was the winner of the contest with the song Je ne sais quoi, beating Jógvan Hansen into second place. Iceland competed in the first semi-final of the contest, on 25 May, reaching third place and qualifying to the final, iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest Eurovision Song Contest 2010 Official Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins site RÚV Rules of Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins 2010

38.
Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010
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Croatia selected its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest through the Dora contest, which was held on 5 and 6 March 2010, organised by the Croatian national broadcaster Hrvatska radiotelevizija. The winner of Dora was the girl group Feminnem with Lako je sve, Feminnem had previously represented Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with the song Call Me, and placed 14th in the final. HRT organised the Dora contest to select the Croatian entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, which will be held in Oslo, Norway from 25 to 29 May 2010. The 18th edition of Dora was held in the Crystal Hall of the Kvarner Hotel in Opatija on 5 and 6 March, before this two preview shows of the semi-final songs, Ususret dori were broadcast on 11 and 12 February. 16 songs competed in the semi-final of the contest on 5 March - these songs came from a call for submissions from songwriters. A public televote selected eight of these songs to progress to the final on 6 March, songs could have been submitted to HRT for the semi-final until 15 December. On 29 December HRT published 15 of the 16 semi-final participants, on 8 January 2010 HRT announced the names of the 8 prequalified finalists, as well as the final semi-finalist. The semi-final of Dora 2010 was held on 5 March, from the 16 competing acts a public televote selected eight to progress to the final the following night, on 6 March. Doris Teur was the semi-final winner, the final of Dora 2010 was held on 6 March. The eight automatic finalists were joined by eight semi-final qualifiers, the final was broadcast on HRT1 and online over the EBUs official web stream ESCTV. The winner will be decided by a 50/50 decision by a professional jury,1994 Croatian entrant Tony Cetinski performed a number of his hits during the show. On 20 March, HRT1 aired the music video of Lako je sve for the first time. The video was directed by Croatian director Gonzo, and the worn by Feminnem were designed by Gordana Zucić. In April 2010 Feminnem released Russian, Italian and English language versions of Lako je sve - Легко всë - Ljehko vsjo, Semplice, croatia competed in the second semi-final of the contest, on 27 May. They failed to be amongst the ten qualifiers to the final on 29 May, croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest Eurovision Song Contest 2010 Official Dora website HRT Dora 2010 -16 semi-finalists and reserves HRT Dora 2010 -8 finalists HRT

39.
Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010
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Slovenia selected its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, which was held in Oslo, Norway, through the EMA contest, organised by Radiotelevizija Slovenija. RTV SLO launched a call for songs for the competition. All interested parties could submit entries until 14 December, with all songs sung in the Slovene language, an appointed jury selected 14 songs to progress to a semi-final. A number of songs were to progress to the final. EMA2010 will be held in the first fortnight of March 2010, RTVSLO announced the 14 semi-final participants on 18 December, selected from 111 submitted entries. Over three weeks 90 second clips of the 21 songs were performed by the artists on TV show Spet doma, the first seven songs from the semi-final were performed on 31 January, with the remaining seven semi-finalists performed on 7 February. On 14 February the seven finalist songs were performed in their full versions after all the songs were presented on Radio Val 202 in their versions on 11 February. The semi-final of EMA2010 was held on 20 February 2010, seven acts from the 14-strong line-up progressed to the final on 21 February. The final was held on 21 February 2010,7 preselected finalists were joined by the seven semi-finalists, with the final winner decided by televoting. Langa came in place with Roko mi daj. Slovenia competed in the second semi-final of the contest on 27 May 2010, ansambel Roka Žlindre & Kalamari performed 11th on stage, following Romania and preceding Ireland. Slovenia finished in 16th place, finishing with only 6 points,1 point from Israel and 5 points from Croatia, therefore they did not qualify for the final on 29 May. In the semi-final Slovenia gave the points,12 points. In the final, where Slovenia were also allowed to vote, in the final the Slovene points were announced by Andrea F. Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest Eurovision Song Contest 2010 Official EMA site Rules for EMA2010

40.
Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010
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Estonia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, held in Oslo, Norway in May. Estonia was represented by Malcolm Lincoln and Manpower 4 with the song Siren, the winning song was initially not among the 10 finalists, but was included later when another entry was disqualified. In October 2009, reports stated that Estonia may be forced to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 due to a 7% cut in the ERR spending budget. CEO of ERR Margus Allikmaa stated that Personally I think cancelling Eurovision participation is the easiest option in combat to the 28 million kroon cut in spending, however no discussions on how to combat the spending cut were held at that time, and no decision had been made. This statement was backed by Anneli Tõevere-Kaur, ERRs media relations manager, however a decision was still not made. Eesti Laul 2010 was held on 12 March at the Nokia Concert Hall in Tallinn, hosted by Estonian actors Ott Sepp, songs could be submitted to ERR until 7 January, and an internal jury would select 10 songs to progress to the televised final. The 10 songs were selected in the format as in the previous years contest. Due to financial problems encountered by ERR, Eesti Laul was simplified from its 2009 form, the winner on the night was selected by a combination of jury and televoting. A record-number of 155 songs were submitted to ERR, the names of the 10 competing artists were announced on 11 January 2010. He was replaced by Malcolm Lincoln and Manpower 4, with the song Siren, ERR officially released the ten competing songs on their website on 1 February. The final was held on 12 March at the Nokia Concert Hall in Tallinn, however online portals have pointed out that Violina & Rolf Juniors song as the most Eurovision-ish song in the contest. ERR released the order for Eesti Laul 2010 on 3 March, with 3 Pead starting the show. ERR also announced a number of guest performers during the final, folk metal band Metsatöll, and last years Eesti Laul winner Urban Symphony, after the performances of the 10 songs, a professional jury and the televoting public selected two songs to progress to the Super Final. They chose Lenna Kuurmaa and Malcolm Lincoln, Lenna and Malcolm Lincoln performed once again, and televoting selected the winner from the two songs. Malcolm Lincolm edged ahead of Lenna with 54% of the televote, Estonia competed in the first semi-final of the contest, on 25 May 2010. Estonia placed sixth at last years contest but had to compete in the due to the new system of the semi-final. They placed 14th and failed to advance to the final, Eesti Laul Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest Eurovision Song Contest 2010 Eesti Laul official website ERR

41.
Slovakia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010
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Slovakia participated at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Bærum, Norway with the song Horehronie, which failed to qualify for the final. Slovenská televízia organised the final to select the Slovak entry for the contest using the Eurosong 2010 format. Slovakia was the first country to announce its participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 and it was revealed that preparation for the 2010 Contest would begin shortly after the 2009 Contest ended. Three preliminary rounds, a semi-final and final were to begin in mid-January to select the Slovak entry, the first announcement for the 2010 selection process came from STV on 14 July. All competing artists for the Slovak national final must have Slovak citizenship, however an exception can be made for the chorus, which may be in English. Interested authors can submit more than one song to the competition, the deadline for entries was set for 30 October. STV announced that the entries would be examined by a jury. STV received 242 entries for the contest, with three entries being disqualified for arriving after the deadline, an internal jury selected the 60 competing songs from the remaining 239 entries, which were announced on 15 December. In December SVT announced the details of the live shows,6 preliminary heats will be held over three weeks in January and February 2010. After this two semi-finals will be held on 14 and 21 February, with the held on 28 February 2010. The shows will be hosted by Martin Rausch, with Martin Kontúr reporting from the green room, both jury and viewers will have a say in the outcome of the Slovak shows, although the jury will be introduced only from the first semifinal. Six heats were held between 22 January and 7 February, from the sixty competing acts, ten in each heat,24 qualified to the two semi-finals on 14 and 21 February. The first heat was held on 22 January, the line-up and running order for the first heat was revealed on 19 January. Televoting during the live shows selected four songs to qualify to one of two semi-finals and it has been announced that profits from the voting in the semi-final will be contributed towards aid for those affected by the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The four qualifiers to the semi-finals were Tomáš Bezdeda, Michaella, Hrdza and they will be replaced by Horská chata in the semi-finals, who came fifth in the televote. The second heat of Eurosong 2010 was held on 24 January, the songs and running order for this heat were revealed on the day of the contest. Televoting selected four songs from the 10 competing to progress to the semi-finals, the four qualifiers were Mista, Pavol Remenár, Klára & Liquid Error, Peter Bažík and Get Explode. The third semi-final was held on 29 January, on 26 January it was announced that two songs, Chýrna zem by Gionno & Ján Mitaľ and Sevilla by Golden Storm, had withdrawn